The services available on GSM networks include a Short Message Service (SMS) for sending to a mobile telephone a short message consisting of a succession of alphanumeric characters, typically 160 alphanumeric characters. The short messages are usually stored temporarily in a server until the addressee is in a position to receive them. As soon as the mobile telephone to which the short message(s) are addressed makes itself known, for example by logging onto the GSM network when it is switched on, the network advises the short message server that it can deliver the message(s) to their addressee. Operators use these short messages to support services they are developing. This is the case with the directory service in particular, which is used to obtain the telephone coordinates of a subscriber. The short message can include the name of the subscriber, their address and their telephone number, for example.
Radio communication devices of the mobile telephone type usually have a display screen, a keypad, a memory for temporarily storing one or more SMS messages received by radio and a processor programmed to work with the keys of the keypad, the memory and the display screen to display SMS messages stored in the memory on the screen in response to pressing at least one key.
Some mobile telephones also offer the facility to enter data to be stored in a structured form in the memory. This can in particular be data of a directory of telephone numbers and/or addresses. Some devices offer the facility to use more than one directory.
Until now, entering the data of a directory of the above kind has required using the alphanumeric keys of the keypad of the telephone to enter each character. Each key on a mobile telephone keypad is programmed to designate at least three letters and one digit. Consequently, entering a single character may require the same key to be pressed more than once to obtain the required character. Also, entering a complete record of the directory (a directory page) requires a cursor to be moved across the display screen to position it at the beginning of each field of the record. Repetitive pressing of the keys therefore makes entering data irksome and the aim of the invention is to simplify the procedure for entering data to constitute an ordered structure stored in the memory of a radio communication device when the data is already available in that memory, for example in an SMS short message.